My grandmother and mother come from Dothan, Alabama. I used to go to see my grandmother when I was a little boy. She had a farm and would show me what the pigs and cows and chickens did. (I was known for eating a lot of chicken, so the chickens usually ran away when I visited.) One animal I never understood was the donkey, because it was a stubborn, and to me, useless animal. My grandmother said, “The only way you get the donkey to do something is you gotta slap the donkey; you can’t entice it, you can’t bribe it; you have to slap the donkey.” Well, many people think that I’m not right to challenge this party, but I’m doing what Grandma taught me. I’m trying to slap this donkey, and I intend to slap this donkey until this donkey kicks George Bush out of the White House in 2004.- Al Sharpton, December 11, 2003.
Complexity Theory shows that small differences in initial conditions can lead to vast differences later on. And that is true of the left and right blogosphere. Both were born at roughly the same time, using the same technologies and operating in the same political environment. But they were born into a position of supporting government policy and we were born into opposing government policy. And that will have major consequences for how the blogospheres behave if, and when, the Democrats take some measure of power in Washington DC.
The left blogosphere is in the business of dissecting government pronouncements and lazy and misleading punditry and print-press articles. That is basically all we do. Yeah, we raise money and post guinea pigs and pandas and cats and dogs. But, our main function is to filter and vet the news. We are not in the business of supporting spin or glossing over government shortcomings. And that is why the Democrats are going to have a problem when they come into power. The blogosphere is going to expect them to be honest, incorruptable, and effective. We are also going to expect them to move to the left, not pander to the center. And we will be just as relentless with the Democrats as we have been with the Republicans. We are a beast that cannot change its stripes.
I see that both Markos and Chris Bowers have posts today that talk about the necessity for keeping a long-term view. This November election is just the beginning. No matter what happens, the left-wing blogosphere is going to continue to slap the donkey. Some will focus on policy, others will focus on the mechanics of the party. But one thing we will never be…we’ll never be mindless sycophantic cheerleaders for the governing party. It’s not in our DNA.
